Daniel 7:25

7:25 He will speak words against the Most High.

He will harass ¹  the holy ones of the Most High continually.

His intention ²  will be to change times established by law. ³ 

They will be delivered into his hand

For a time, times, ⁴  and half a time.

Daniel 11:17

11:17 His intention ⁵  will be to come with the strength of his entire kingdom, and he will form alliances. ⁶  He will give the king of the south ⁷  a daughter ⁸  in marriage in order to destroy the kingdom, but it will not turn out to his advantage.

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¹ tn Aram “wear out” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV); NASB, NLT “wear down.” The word is a hapax legomenon in biblical Aramaic, but in biblical Hebrew it especially refers to wearing out such things as garments. Here it is translated “harass…continually.”

² tn Aram “he will think.”

³ tn Aram “times and law.” The present translation is based on the understanding that the expression is a hendiadys.

⁴ sn Although the word times is vocalized in the MT as a plural, it probably should be regarded as a dual. The Masoretes may have been influenced here by the fact that in late Aramaic (and Syriac) the dual forms fall out of use. The meaning would thus be three and a half “times.”

⁵ tn Heb “and he will set his face.” Cf. vv. 18, 19.

⁶ tc The present translation reads מֵישָׁרִים (mesharim, “alliances”) for the MT וִישָׁרִים (viysharim, “uprightness”).

⁷ tn Heb “him”; the referent (the king of the south) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁸ tn Heb “the daughter of the women.”

sn The daughter refers to Cleopatra, the daughter of Antiochus, who was given in marriage to Ptolemy V.